You were once a Roman Centurion, strong and brave. But you died long ago on the battlefield. The mighty Zeus, God of Thunder, has brought you back from the dead to save his daughter Athena from Neff, Lord of the Underworld. Collect two spirit balls by defeating the white three-headed wolves, and transform yourself into the different powerful forms of the Altered Beast. In human form you'll have the ability to punch and kick your enemies on the ground or in the air by leaping at them. Fearful of your superhuman powers Neff has sent a sinister horde of his own demons, monsters and other as-sorted creatures of the underworld to stop you.

If you succeed in surviving a round with these nasty brutes and change into one of the altered beasts, you'll grow too powerful for ordinary demons to defeat. Neff himself appears and sends one of his most fearful monstrosities to attack you. Defeating Neff and his different evil sidekicks uses all your energy and you alter back to human form, but move closer to your goal. You must survive four different chilling encounters with Neff's evil creatures and Neff himself in order to rescue Athena.

ProTip: When the title screen appears hold down the directional button diagonally, UP and LEFT, and press buttons 1 and 2 simultaneously. This gives you extra health on your life gauge.

Through the Graveyard

Green grass, tombstones, and crypts -- a peaceful cemetery scene? Far from it. Here the dead won't stay dead. To escape this nightmare, you'll have to kick or punch a few headless and horned zombies and assorted flying demons intent on swooping down to claw you into submission. Capture the first spirit ball and you receive greater strength and size. Your blows smash the demons with greater ease. The second spirit ball changes you into a ferocious, howling Werewolf. In this form you shoot fire balls, or become a flaming arrow, sizzling evil beasties and burning them up. Aggar himself confronts you at the end of the level. He is a grotesque being who cuts off his head, hurtles it at you, then grows a new one to throw!

To defeat Aggar stay close and shoot fire balls. Run away when heads are thrown

The Cavern

In this bone chilling scenario, you battle through a dark, dank cavern. You take on creeping, crawling creatures, called Chicken Stingers that whip their tails at you. Round Leeches try to cling to you, bite you and drain away your power. Watch for Rattle Tails, the giant snakes that pop up from the ground and slither down from the trees. As quickly as possible, alter yourself to the form of the Weredragon. Then you can fly, flash lightning and electrocute anything that touches your body with your protective shield. Becoming the Weredragon is your only chance zapping Octeyes, a pithy plant creature who tosses poisonous spores at you.

Stay about one body away from Octeyes and shoot directly at his eye. Use your energy field to protect you when thrown spores get too close.

The Fortress Bates

Breach the gates of Neff's underworld fortress and face a new horde of horrible demons. Cave Needles (giant mutated ground wasps) run along the ground and try to sting you. Hammer Demons attack from above, trying to smash you with their huge hammers. Zombies and demons appear from all directions as you get closer to Athena. Alter into a Weretiger and you'll have golden fire to blast your foes. Defeat them and you face Crocodile Wyrm, a terrible reptilian creature who flies and spits fire.

When fighting Crocodile Wyrm shoot him from underneath as he goes to the top of the screen. When the slimy lizard is low, jump over single fire balls and duck and shoot alter four are thrown.

Neff's Stronghold

Your hair stands on end as you enter the stronghold of Neff, Lord of the Underwood, where skeletons and corpses stick up from the ground. Neff's lair is populated by the most evil brutes of all. You'll battle jump-kicking Dark Unicorns and swift Gory Goats. Jump over Saw Fish who'll slice you with their spines that are sharp as saw blades. Watch out for the clever Bad Boar who is smart, defensive, and difficult to destroy. In the end you face Neff himself, the final and toughest of your foes. He takes on demon form and it's a battle to the death. To defeat Neff you must take the form of the Golden Werewolf, the most powerful of the altered beasts. Triumph in this ultimate challenge and victory is yours!

To defeat Neff only shoot one fire ball at a time. Then jump up and over him when he charges.

Altered Beast is another great arcade translation for Sega owners! The excellent graphics and sounds, along with the exciting play make this game one of the hottest new titles for the Sega system. So go ahead, let Altered Beast bring out the savage beast in you!

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Altered Beast Downloads

Strategy Guide

As a showpiece game for the Genesis, Altered Beast comes packaged with this exciting, new game system. This arcade classic features colorfully detailed graphics and smooth animation, as well as an exceptional soundtrack filled with digitized voices. Lots of surprises await you, so let's get going!

Round 1

The first transformation, you'll undergo will be into a werewolf. Abilities include flame streakins and throwing fireballs. The flame streaking will let you zip horizontally at fast speed, destroying most objects in your path,

The slow feet are the first enemies you will encounter. One punch or kick will truly ruin their day. The Headless Horrors are tougher to kill and remember ... they punch back!

When the blue three-headed wolves appear, they must be destroyed to obtain the magic spirit balls.

Three blue wolves must be killed and the three magic capsules captured, to gain full power-up and transform. If three blue wolves go by and you miss any, the level will continue until you get your third power-up. This extends your play time and increases your chances of getting maimed or killed.

When a magic capsule is obtained, you will be momentarily paralyzed and susceptible to injury. The best trick is to kill anything immediately near you before grabbing the capsule.

The demon dog, Neff, throws lightning at you. Avoid him and he'll just go away. Destroy him and 100,000 points is yours. The second or third time in a round he appears, you get 50,000 and 20,000 points respectively for getting him.

Aggar is the boss of Level 1. He likes to rip off his head and throw it at you - but he grows new ones right away! In the guise of a werewolf you can try and dodge the heads by running between gaps or use your flame streak to blast through the heads. The fireballs you throw will eventually kill Aggar.

Round 2

By turning into a weredragon, you can fly and spit lightning bolts. You can also raise up a laser barrier shield that protects you.

The rattle tail snakes are easy to avoid or destroy in this round. A little tougher are the round leeches. These purple spuds jump on you, latch on to your head and drain your energy counter quickly. Keep punching to get them off of you. The third enemies, chicken stingers, keep their distance and are the most difficult to kill.

As a weredragon you can fly and spit lightning bolts. Use these to kill any creatures left.

Neff appears again and won't bother you, if you stay away.

Try out your laser barrier. Pretty good, huh?

Now it's Octeyes turn.

In this form, Octeyes is a nice guy.

But when he sets his eyes on you there is big trouble. Use your laser barrier to protect yourself and keep shooting into his central eye.

Round 3

The werebear gives you bear breath that'll kill almost anything. As a bear you can also go into a body spin - kind of like a furry boulder.

Stay high and you'll be safe because there are dangerous pits below which, even the horny-headed grave masters can fall into.

As a werebear you have death breath and can roll into a furry ball for powerful attack. The rock turtles move slow and die easy.

You'll have to come down eventually because the platforms run out and the blue wolves appear below how.

It's moldy snail time. Get ready to attack as soon as it appears.

Your bear breath isn't the way to kill moldy snail. Use the body spin and bounce into the snail, then out again.

Round 4

As a weretiger, bouncing flame balls come out of your fingertips. Like the flame streak, you can turn into a pillar of fire, but this works up and down, not side-to-side.

This is a tricky level so get all the capsules you can! Creatures come from above and below.

High, jump onto the columns and walls to avoid creatures below, and also position yourself to kill the hammer demons.

The weretiger can shoot bouncing flame and fly on a pillar of fire. The pillar of fire is the same as the flame streak, except it moves up and down and not side to side. You'll kill enemies with ease using these.

Watch out for the round leeches! Now isn't the time to die.

Prepare to battle the crocodile worm!

Use the pillar of fire to kill the little dragons that come out of the crocodile worm.

Keep whomping the croc with bouncing flame and you'll eventually trash him.

Round 5

The gold werewolf is similar in power to the werewolf in Level 1.

In this level, there's a good piece of advice: if it moves, kill it.

The gory goats, dark unicorns and saw fishes are tough, but the rad boars are bad news.

The rad boars will jump on the upper levels and knock you off.

The wolves move fast in this level. It's easy to miss at least one of the first three.

Jump over or punch the saw fish.

Say hello to Neff, again. He has a killer punch but your gold, werewolf can take him down, if you avoid his hits.

Your quest is complete

I command you to rise from your grave and rescue my daughter.

Round 6

Not a bad place to stay out of trouble.

Keeping a low profile is a good idea here.

An example of the new trend in video gaming. All important life tip, though not necessarily applicable to Altered Beast, from the programmers.

Practice your punches and kicks on these easy targets.

When the skinny orcuses comes down, push the B button to kick up.

Touch your enemies with ease after you recover the first magic ball.

reggie posted a review

Manufacturer: Sega

Machine: Genesis

Sega made a mistake in their Altered Beast instruction booklet with the continue feature they described. The true way to continue is by holding A while you hit START.

reggie posted a review

Levels: 5

Theme: Action

Players: 1-2

Difficulty: Easy

The very first 16 bit cart around. You or a friend must rescue Athena, the daughter of Zeus, from the clutches of the creature Neif. Use your shape shifting ability for extra powers and abilities.

reggie posted a review

In Altered Beast you're a Roman Centurion soldier revived from the dead by the mighty Lord Zeus. It seems that Neff, the Lord of the Underworld, has kidnapped Zeus' daughter and taken her deep within his subterranean fortress. The lair of Neff is a strange and mystical place where powerful demons carry Spirit Balls and Zeus' incredible powers can not protect you.

Based on the recent Sega arcade game, this translation does a good job of capturing most of the familiar play mechanics of its arcade cousin. There are four levels of play filled with underworld creatures that constantly appear for battle. These guardians protect the demon warrior Neff, who guards the end of each round and transforms into a bizarre cast of giant monsters once you have captured the Spirit Balls and made the transformation into any one of the magical creatures.

SECRET CONTINUE

To continue the battle after you die, hold the pad up and to the left while pressing the 'A' and 'B' buttons when the "Game Over" screen appears. Go to the lower-left, lower-right, and upper-right for subsequent continues.

POWER-UP

To successfully power-up your character into the Werewolf, Weredragon, Werebear, or the Weretiger, you must first capture three of the Spirit Balls that appear whenever a silver wolf is eliminated.

FIGHT NEFF AS A HUMAN

Although this trick makes the encounters with the Boss monsters more difficult, it is interesting. During each round avoid powering up. You will encounter Neff several times but he will eventually attack you as a human.

reggie posted a review

Altered Beast is one of the first games available for the 16-Bit Genesis system. It has all of the features found in the arcade version, including five levels of play and exceptional graphics and sounds. The 8-Bit version for the SMS is an equally outstanding game, but the differences between the games is obvious.

reggie posted a review

You are the centurion warrior called from the grave to rescue the daughter of Zeus. By defeating enemies, players get "power up" atoms which give them the ability to transform into wolf man, dragon, bear man and tiger man; each with special supernatural powers.

reggie posted a review

Altered Beast is a video game released in 1988 by Sega, who was also the main developer. The game was ported to many platforms over the years, but was first released for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The release for Sega Master System came one year later, in the same timeframe as the PC version. The game was also released for iOS in 2010.

Altered Beast is a side scrolling beat ‘em up which allows the player to control a centurion who dies in a battle. The centurion has been resurrected to rescue Athena, Zeus’ daughter, from a Demon God called Neff. The player will encounter lots of demons over this platformer in his quest to save Athena. In order to save the kidnapped princess he needs to pass through several levels. The game takes place in the Ancient Greece.

The hero has to pick up power-ups during the levels. The power-ups are called “Spirit Balls” and will increase his strength and size. This will allow the player to transform into a superhuman in different stages. When three of them are collected, the player will transform into a beast with exceptional abilities.The hero will have to encounter a boss at the end of each level. The boss is the main antagonist of the game, Neff, but transformed in different forms.

The player’s ability to transform into different creatures was the main selling point of the game. Users enjoyed the control of the gameplay and rescuing Athena at the end of the game was the cherry on top.

There are five levels in the game. Graveyard is the first one, where Zeus resurrects the hero. The setting is a Roman-style graveyard. The second level is in the Underworld and the player can transform into the Weredragon here. The third level is the Cavern of Souls, which is a dark underground cave. The player can transform into the Werebear in this level. The fourth level is Neff’s place. The last level is the City of Dis, where Athena is kept captive. The hero can transform into Golden Werewolf, who is a powerful creature.

At the end of each level Neff transforms into a boss. First he is Aggar, then Octeyes, then Mouldy Snail and Crocodile Worm in the fourth level. In the last level he will not transform, the hero will just encounter Neff himself.

Altered Beast was a popular game back in the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, when people had for the first time the chance to control a hero who can transform into other creatures. This feature was unique at that point. The game was later ported on Nintendo’s Virtual Console Wii and the version for Genesis was rated by GameSpot users with a 7.4 mark out of 10.

reggie posted a review

You have been summoned from your grave by Zeus, king of the Olympians, to resuce his kidnapped daughter.

"Welcome to your doom!" Anyone familiar with this arcade classic will instantly recognize that as the greeting you receive when you start a game of Altered Beast.

Venture back to a time when gods ruled the Earth and gladiators fought for their honor. You’ve been recruited by Zeus to rescue Athena, and you’ll have to make your way through five levels of the evil Underworld to save her. Your perilous journey will take you through spooky graveyards, dark forests, and dank caves, populated by the nastiest zombies, dragons, and mutant pigs you'll ever want to meet.

Luckily, you have the ability to transform into savage beasts that make you even more powerful than in your human form. Your powers increase when you destroy certain enemies and take their energy; once you achieve a certain energy level, you can alter your shape into that of a beast, with additional abilities. Whether you’re the Werewolf, the Weredragon, or the Weretiger, you’ll gain special abilities as each beast that will make you an unstoppable machine.

At the end of each level is a "boss" monster that you must defeat to travel to the next area.

Destroy all enemies to rescue the fair maiden. Zeus is counting on you don't let him down.

Altered Beast features:

Based on the arcade hit

One or two players

Morph into one of three powerful beasts

Awesome side-scrolling, fighting action

Great graphics and sound

reggie posted a review

Discuss it on forum

This is a cool game, and just like the description says, Morph into a powerful beast, but there is more than three and you can't choose, the beast is already preset with each level, you can look at the spoiler but it you don't want to just skip past it Spoiler ALERT: Level one - Wolfman (Attacks - Fireball, Run Rush) Level two - Dragonman (Attacks - Electric bolt, Electric Barage) Level three - Grizley Bear (Attacks - Stone Bubble, High Jump ball) Level four - Tigerman (Attacks - Bounce fire ball, Jump Rush[This is kind of like Run Rush except up and down instead of straight]) Level five [Final Level] - Enhanced Wolfman (Attacks - More Powerful Fireball, More Powerful Run Rush) End of SPOILER Well, this game is very cool, especially to those who like and favor greek and roman mythologie! Highly recommended by me JGCD!